Git Tips

Deleting a local branch is rather easy:

Git usually gets confused when you rename/move a file and change its content at the same time. Git would think the old file was deleted and a new file was created. All of the version history is simply lost.

When pushing, your local branch must be ahead of the remote branch, otherwise, the push is rejected. This is called the "fast-forward rule". In the case of a feature branch, one can force-push, but one should never force-push to master.

Until some 2 years ago, the default branch of every git repository was called "master". It was a synonym for "the default branch". Then there was an initiative to change this because it was offensive to some people. GitHub was the first one to react and changed the default branch name to "main". On git, the default branch name stayed "master", but an option was added to change it.

Git stash is a place to store your unfinished work to do things like changing the branch or pulling the latest changes. Then one can pop the changes and continue working.

This one is a child of tips 3 and 4. First of all, if we want to rebase every time we pull, why not make it the default? Also, if we want to stash our uncommited changes every time we pull/rebase, why not make it automated? That's what this tip is about:

Let's say you created a new branch locally, named my-fantastic-branch, and you want to push it to the remote repo. The first time you're pushing, you need to specify the name again and instruct git that this is your "upstream" branch from now on so that git creates the branch on the remote repo:

Avoid accidental empty commit messages by upgrading Git and relying on the editor prompt.

Create a short alias for `push --force-with-lease` so the safer option is easier to use.

Amend the latest commit with a different author name and email.

Remove all local branches except the main one with a single pipeline command.

Automatically remove local references to remote branches that were deleted upstream.

Clean up stale remote-tracking branches after they disappear from the remote.

Use interactive rebase to squash your recent commits into one cleaner commit.

Change the message of an older commit with interactive rebase and the `reword` action.

Remove a commit from history with interactive rebase and the `drop` action.

Use interactive rebase with the `edit` action to amend an older commit.

Stage only part of a file by using Git's interactive add mode.

Track down the commit that introduced a bug by walking history with `git bisect`.

Smaller pull requests are easier to review and usually produce better feedback.

Create a backup branch before a risky rebase so recovery is cheap.